I’ve been debating whether or not to blog this since it’s a baseless allegation rife with innuendo. However, as Gov. Palin said, “The heels are on and the gloves are off.” And while her heels may be pointy and sharp, mine are clunky with deep treads that hold lots of mud.
So as long as we’re condemning people based on guilt by association, it’s only fair to consider that in 1973, John McCain was released from over 5 years in the custody of the Communist Chinese government. The documents at the time, and his own accounts of the incident indicate the Chinese believed that he was a “special prisoner” because, as the son of an Admiral, he would doubtless return home to a position of authority in the government or the military. He was, for all intents and purposes, American royalty. His treatment while in custody was anything but typical.
Further, the Chinese were well documented to undertake psychological as well as physical torture in an effort to break the spirit of their prisoners. They wanted to turn the prisoners against their own country and make them sympathize with their captors. Far fetched? Not only is Stockholm Syndrome real, but in the case of American POWs held by the Chinese, at least 21 of them decided to remain in China following the war, refusing to return to the US. Clearly, the Chinese mental manipulations met with some degree of success.
McCain clearly was minimally induced by the Chinese to alter his behavior. By his own admission, he violated the military code of conduct for a prisoner of war in an effort to ease his suffering. In fairness, any of us would have done the same. But this doesn’t lessen the impact the experience had on him.
How can we know what behavioral modifications occurred during those 5 years? We can’t. John McCain likely doesn’t know either. What’s more, in the coming years, China will become our largest global challenge. Their ascendancy on the global stage makes them the likely nation to try to usurp our position as “lone superpower” on the planet. Can we reasonably take the risk that John McCain is a one man sleeper cell?
Bill Ayers doesn’t look so scary now, does he?
Well, I was just listening to Rush Limbaugh and he said that he was told today that “McCain believes that this election will be won in the last 72 hours”. So, hold on to your hats, I’m sure that means they will try something even dirtier in the 11th hour that they think will turn this all around for them.